System overhaul

After stringing it out for the last year my motherboard is taking a dump. Since the 939 socket boards aren't made anymore I need to replace the CPU and memory as well. I can salvage some of the components, including the power supply (Antec TruePower Treo 650W), soundcard (X-FI XtremeGamer Fatal1ty), hard-drives, case, etc. Since my graphics cards are woefully outdated (two 6800s running in SLI) I plan on replacing them too.

I want to have room for future upgrades (ex, second video card in SLI, a slot for a dedicated PhysX GPU, etc.). I'd like to keep the upgrade to under $1,000 and for it to run games like Crysis in at least 1600 x 1200 on max settings. To saving on a cooling system I don't plan on overclocking right away.

I was looking at a GTX280 and two 2 GB sticks (OCZ ReaperX HPC PC2-6400).

After a CPU fan that leaves me with about $400 for the motherboard and CPU.

I was thinking either a XFX 680i LT ($110) with a Q6700 ($270), a EVGA 780i ($220) with either a Q6600 ($190) or a E8400 ($170), or a XFX 680i with a Q6600 and saving the $80 to $110.

Any thoughts on this? Is the PCIe 2.0 and dual-channel support worth the money for the 780i? Will there really be a real-world difference between the motherboard/CPU builds or is the bottleneck in the GPU.

Thanks.

Well, I did some more reading. Apparently the EVGA 680i has dual-channel support for memory and tri-sli and is only $10 more than the XFX 680i LT.

I think I found a better option though--an EVGA 750i ($190) and a E8400.

Another question though... Anyone know why there's such a price difference on the 9800 GX2s? On Newegg PNY 9800 GX2s are $270 (@ 675 MHz) while te BFG 9800 GX2s are $550 (@ 600 MHz)... WTF?

Ferret: Huh... Interesting. Best Buy also has the 9800 GX2s listed at $650, so I assumed the 9800 and 280 were about the same price. Might as well save the couple hundred then...

X360: I'd like to it play current games in high settings in at least 1600 by 1200. I figure that means by the end of next year they'll be playable at medium settings, and 2010 games will still be playable after adding a second graphics card. Basically I'm looking for it to last two or three years.

Ferret: Huh... Interesting. Best Buy also has the 9800 GX2s listed at $650, so I assumed the 9800 and 280 were about the same price. Might as well save the couple hundred then...

X360: I'd like to it play current games in high settings in at least 1600 by 1200. I figure that means by the end of next year they'll be playable at medium settings, and 2010 games will still be playable after adding a second graphics card. Basically I'm looking for it to last two or three years.

Tyhk83